Code for America develops app to help Long Beach reduce 911 medical calls

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Molly McLeod, left, Dan Getelman, center, and Rhys Fureigh, right, of Code for America, developed a new app that could revolutionize reporting by Long Beach’s public service agencies. (Thomas R. Cordova / Staff Photographer)

Dan Getelman and his colleagues of Code for America, a nonpartisan group founded to help the public sector utilizing evolving technology, talk about their new app on Tuesday. (Thomas Cordova / Staff Photographer)

LONG BEACH >> A new web-based application being rolled out by the city aims to help reduce the high volume of medical calls from certain addresses and connect callers with resources better suited to their needs.

Named “AddressIQ,” the app draws together information from the city’s fire, police and business licensing departments and encourages communication between employees to suggest solutions for Long Beach’s so-called “super-users” of emergency medical services, or those who call 9-1-1 on a frequent basis.

The software is the product of three fellows from Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded in 2009 to build open-source applications to make government services simple, effective and easy to use. Long Beach is one of 10 partner cities for the organization for 2014.

Although residents will likely benefit from the outcomes produced by AddressIQ, on a day-to-day basis, the tool is seen as a boon to city employees responding to medical issues.

“This gives a place where all those people can come and benefit by knowing what happened at these addresses before,” said Dan Getelman, a software developer and entrepreneur from New York City and one of Long Beach’s Code for America fellows this year.

AddressIQ works like this: Whenever an emergency medical call is made, the originating location’s address and call information is sent to the application, along with business license information, if applicable. The number and category of fire and police calls is also displayed, and all of the information can be browsed in increments of seven days, one month, three months and one year.

Finally, employees can comment and invite others into a discussion about the address in a “Take Action” section.

The last component is the key to the system, said fellow Rhys Fureigh, a web developer and online strategist.

As an example of how such communication can be effective, Fureigh laid out a scenario where a paramedic notes a sizable number of falls at a particular senior center, prompting a Health Department employee to organize a fall-prevention class and call on the Building Department to inspect the stairs at the facility.

Fureigh said she, Getelman and fellow Molly McLeod, a graphic artist, focused on emergency medical services after their initial research became focused on a particular statistic they discovered: 52 percent of medical calls to 9-1-1 in Long Beach came from 10 percent of addresses in 2013.

“Reduction is the name of the game,” Fureigh said. “The ideal outcome here is city staff decreasing overtime, better health outcomes for residents and better overall use of emergency resources.”

According to Fureigh, five other cities have expressed interest in using the application.

Former Mayor Bob Foster pushed the City Council to pursue a partnership with Code for America last year, committing $180,000 in one-time funding for the purpose. The Molina Foundation gave a matching contribution.

Code for America’s efforts in February were at first focused on health insurance delivery, but the fellows pivoted in the spring to tackle high-volume medical calls after reviewing data and conducting extensive interviews.

In a statement, Mayor Robert Garcia said the project is a great example of building a 21st-century government.

“It’s especially exciting to see new technology support increased public safety and reduced expenses for the city,” said Garcia.